RECENT AND UPCOMING MEETUP TOPICS

Ballots Everywhere (Saturday, 10/19 @ 2pm)

Scott Alexander has helped coordinate “Ballots Everywhere” meetups in several major cities for this November’s election From Scott: “Each election year, I’ve shared how I plan to vote in local elections. This year I want to scale up and produce voter guides for all the big US cities/states with a critical mass

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August Meetup – Social Capital (SUNDAY 8/4 @ 2 PM)

The next monthly discussion meetup is SUNDAY, August 4 @ 2 PM (see below for location etc.). For this month, we’re going to discuss the (supposed) decline of social capital (social connections), an idea popularized by Robert Putnam in “Bowling Alone”. Has social interaction declined? How does technology-mediated interaction factor

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July Meetup – Are Inventions Inevitable? (7/6 @ 2 PM)

There are many famous historical examples of multiple people making the same discovery nearly simultaneously (calculus, natural selection, the telephone, etc.). Is this because inventions are inevitable and are “going to happen sometime soon” once all of the necessary pieces are in place? Or, do individual researchers shape the technological

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June Meetup – One-on-one Discussions (6/8 @ 2 PM)

The next monthly discussion meetup is Saturday, June 8 @ 2 PM (see below for location etc.). For this month, we’re going to try something different. We going to facilitate one-on-one discussions (note: not debates per se) with people that have (roughly) opposing views on particular issues. Essentially, we’ll poll

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May Meetup – Social Media and Mental Health

The next monthly discussion meetup is Saturday, May 4 @ 2 PM (see below for location etc.). For this meetup, we’ll be discussing the relationship between social media and mental health, with a focus on arguments by psychologist Jonathan Haidt (particularly from his new book) and some criticisms of his

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April Meetup – Fertility (Saturday, 4/6)

For our April discussion meetup, we will discuss fertility. ​Robin Hanson has been blogging extensively about the topic​ and it has also entered the discourse. So, let’s talk about it! SUGGESTED READING As always, feel free to come even if you haven’t done the reading. This is just a starting

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February Meetup – Lighting Talks

For our February discussion meetup, we’ll be hosting another round of lightning talks (and discussions). The lighting talks will be 5-10 minute presentations (plus additional time for discussion) presented by members of the Chicago Rationality community. The discussions will be less of a presentation and more of a short, participatory

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